A Southampton man who led police on a wild car chase has been fined $1,200 and disqualified from driving for 12 months.

At 5.30pm on July 3 2014, officers approached a black Mitsubishi Lancer waiting at the exit of Southampton Rangers Sports Club.

They discovered 45-year-old David Astwood fidgeting in the driver’s seat, checked if he was okay and asked him to move on.

At this point, Astwood drove onto South Road quickly and erratically, arousing the officers’ suspicions and causing them to pursue him.

As the defendant sped away from police, he was seen to swerve into the oncoming lane of traffic, while also extending his arm out of the vehicle to drop a white plastic container which had liquid inside.

When Astwood finally pulled into a Paget parking lot, officers found that he smelt of liquor, his speech was slurred and he was unsteady on his feet.

After denying that he had consumed any alcohol, the defendant would not comply to a breathalyser test, saying: “I’m not giving any. I refuse to give it.”

Astwood was arrested and taken to Hamilton Police Station, where he again refused to take a breath test, and was charged the following day.

In Magistrates’ Court this morning Astwood, who has a 2012 conviction for driving without care and control of a vehicle, denied driving while impaired but accepted the charge of failing to give a sample to police.

He said: “It won’t happen again. I’m sorry.”

Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo banned him from driving any vehicle for 12 months and ordered him to pay the $1,200 fine by May 12 or face 100 days in prison.